FPL seeks to charge extra for those who reject smart meters

Customers would be charged $105 one-time fee and $16 per month

August 24, 2013|By Doreen Hemlock, Sun Sentinel

Florida Power & Light Co. is asking regulators to approve extra charges for a tiny group of customers who refuse its new digital smart-meters.

FPL wants to charge a $105 one-time fee and $16 per month for those customers who want to keep using older meters that cannot be read remotely. The monthly fee would pay for someone to visit the customer's home or business monthly to read the old-style meter.

Florida's largest utility recently installed digital smart-meters in 4.5 million homes and across power distribution points to better monitor energy flows, so it can detect and fix electricity problems faster. The $800 million system should cut FPL operating costs long-term, partly by trimming employees who visit homes to read meters.

But some 24,000 households — about half of 1 percent of FPL customers — opted out of the smart-meters, citing concerns over health risks and privacy.

Smart-meter opponent Richard Hertzon of Parkland said he's willing to pay something to cover the costs of an employee reading his older meter, but he finds $16 per month "kind of steep."

"But if that's what it is, I'll do it," Hertzon said. "Because I don't want that thing in my house."

The 70-year-old said he doesn't want FPL to know when he's using his computer, doing his laundry or other personal information." I think this is another way to let Big Brother watch us," said Hertzon.

He also worries that wireless radio frequencies from the devices could harm his health.

FPL officials have said such fears are unwarranted.

The frequencies used in its smart-meters are similar to those in a garage-door opener and hundreds of times less than emission limits set by the Federal Communications Commission. And like older meters, the new ones are read only periodically to check total energy usage, FPL officials said.

FPL figures about 12,000 customers may end up paying the new fees, if regulators approve them.